The MINT program, designed using the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards as its foundation, was developed and is implemented in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Education and the Chicago Teachers Union Quest Center. The program resulted from the merger of two separate CPS efforts at new teacher support. One began in 1996 with 30 hours of after-school professional development seminars for new teachers. The other initiative began in 1997 as a new-teacher mentoring component experienced teachers serving as paid mentors. While the seminars were required for all new teachers, the mentoring component has been voluntary on the part of each school principal.

MINT is partially supported through grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the McDougal Family Foundation. Currently, the MINT program includes approximately 325 schools (elementary and high school) with 560 mentors, over 900 teachers new to the system and 300 teachers in their second year of employment with CPS. On October 27, 1999, Policy Board Report No. 99-1027-PO2 was passed by Chicago Public Schools. This policy will require the participation of all new teachers in this two-year induction program with mentor support.

The MINT Program's goals are the following :

• Improve student learning throughout the system by reducing teacher attrition and thus reducing the number of unqualified teachers in classrooms.
• Improve student learning through engaging teachers in structured inquiry into exemplary teaching practices for CPS students.
• Develop institutional capacity to help new teachers meet the new Illinois Professional Teaching Assessments mandated by the legislature in 1997 to go into effect for 1999 graduates of teacher education programs.
• Establish a program structure that integrates teacher professional development from the teacher preparation programs through their induction years and into phases of ongoing professional growth that include new teacher mentoring and school leadership.

The characteristics of this program can be described as follows:

• Each certified teacher new to CPS is expected to complete 45 hours of professional development over a two-year period.
• All participants in the program—mentors, mentor trainers, new teachers, and so on—have clearly defined responsibilities in an accountability system that allows us to monitor the quality of program implementation at every step. An external evaluator will be hired to conduct program evaluation that will further enhance our ability to improve the program over time.

Year one for each new teacher

• 30 hours of workshops are designed to induct new teachers into CPS and to support their growth as teachers, according to the needs of the system and the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards. (The Illinois Standards are the basis for the standard license for all new teachers beginning this year.) These workshops are offered by a trained cadre of experienced teachers and administrators, and they provide large-group (up to 30 participants) and small-group interaction.
• Each of these inductees also receives mentoring from a teacher in his or her school. That mentor provides support and professional development opportunities to no more than three teachers in the school. Experienced mentor educators from the CPS Teachers Academy, CTU Quest Center, and UIC College of Education will provide training for all mentors.

Year two for each teacher

• All new hires, in the second year of the two-year program, attend fifteen hours of workshops to support them in developing a professional portfolio consistent with Illinois Professional Teaching Standards. These workshops, with one exception, are offered by university specialists from throughout the Chicago area and will focus the new teacher on his or her own teaching and on exemplary teaching practice. The exception is one workshop that provides an orientation to the Museum in the Park facilities, so that all second-year teachers have hands-on exposure to Chicago's museum resources.
• On-site mentoring continues, but with a focus on developing professional portfolios that reflect the 11 Illinois Teaching Standards. All mentors receive training in standards-based portfolio preparation. In addition, an accountability system for on-site mentoring requires all mentors and new teachers to document school-based mentoring activities.
• At the end of the second year, each teacher will turn in a professional portfolio demonstrating proficient performance in each of the 11 Illinois Professional Teaching Standards. A cadre of trained university assessors from throughout the Chicago area will assess each portfolio and provide formative feedback to each teacher. This feedback will contribute to the improvement of practice as well as to the teacher's preparation for the Illinois portfolio assessments leading to the standard teaching license.

Since 1996, when CPS participated in the work of the UIC/Illinois State Board of Education Task Force on Teacher Certification and Development, it has been the goal of the CPS Teachers Academy to provide leadership to the state's initiatives in new teacher support and assessment. If this proposal is approved and the program systemically implemented, CPS will be providing state and national leadership in addressing the quality of classroom teachers. In ten years, this proposed program would prepare over 10,000 CPS teachers for the new Illinois teaching certificate, and new teacher retention in Chicago would continue to improve. This will be a cost-effective way to reduce the number of unqualified teachers in CPS classrooms and improve the conditions for improved student learning.

For more information on this exemplary practice, contact:

Steve Tozer
UIC College of Education
1040 W. Harrison M/C 147
Chicago, IL 60607
Phone: 312-413-7782
Fax: 312-996-6400

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